Fatal Females by Libby-Jane Charleston

Author:Libby-Jane Charleston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Hardie Grant Books
Published: 2013-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

Zahra’s cancer was in remission and she was wearing her prosthetic leg. Her mother had no idea she was on the verge of moving to the US.

It was during Zahra’s fight with cancer that her father discovered the sometimes seedy world of internet chat rooms. Adam was a member of the IMVU (Instant Messaging Virtual Universe) website, where you can portray yourself as a 3-D character to exchange instant messages with other users who are also using an online disguise. He struck up a virtual romance with Elisa, who described herself as a forty-something gothic fairy, using a fairy avatar with red angel wings. Adam disguised himself as a strange black figure with bat wings.

Elisa, who was nine years older than Adam, said she was a former police officer who’d been shot in the line of duty. She also told a tale about being a former bounty hunter. But these were blatant lies, perhaps told in a desperate bid to attract a new man. Either way, she succeeded, telling friends she’d found her soul mate in a Queensland cane cutter called Adam Baker.

On her MySpace page Elisa wrote, ‘Who says long-distance relationships don’t work?’ before travelling to Australia in June 2008 to meet Adam, first setting eyes on her future husband at Brisbane’s airport. The two travelled to Giru where, in July, they married in Adam’s parents’ garden. His parents, understandably, were concerned about the union – and became even more so when the couple announced they were taking Zahra with them to begin a new life in Hickory, North Carolina.

A Queensland woman, Nikki Hay, who befriended Zahra when her own daughter was fighting cancer at the same time, later told police that Adam’s family was very unhappy about Zahra moving to the US. In the aftermath of Zahra’s disappearance, Hay wrote an email to the Hickory police chief, telling him that when she’d contacted Adam’s mother, Karen, to pass on photos she’d taken of Zahra, Karen seemed very upset.

‘She explained to me that her son had remarried and they had taken off overseas quite abruptly and she didn’t have any idea of exactly where they were,’ wrote Hay.

Before Zahra left for America, the local community, a school and charities raised money to buy Zahra a wheelchair. According to Karen, other children were inspired by Zahra’s love of life. Zahra had completed an obstacle course involving ropes and, when asked how she managed to do the course with only one leg, Zahra replied, ‘Because I want to.’

Her Australian family and friends claim Zahra did not want to leave Australia, as she would greatly miss her grandparents and friends.

When Elisa, Adam and Zahra arrived in Hickory, they stayed with Elisa’s father for six months until they could find a place of their own. But in those six months, things were already beginning to turn sour. A neighbour claimed Zahra was already in danger then, as there were sounds of physical violence coming from the home. Shirley Mims, the landlord of the Bakers’ first rental home, had to ask the family to leave when they didn’t pay rent.

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